back as a spokeswoman says quote, president obama and his cronies know that if they have to face mitt romney in the general election they are going to lose. h is why they continue their kill romney strategy. the fight is slirn on between the two sides. the dnc, in turn, opened up a war room in des moines calling it their home base for rapid responses, wolf. thank you very much, lisa sylvester. you heard democrats are going after mitt romney. i will talk to the party s chairwoman, debbie washington wasserman schultz, about the romney obsession. and rick santorum s record under fire. will a surprising new dig by ron paul stop santorum stop him from surging tomorrow night. we have a new interview with ron and rand paul, both of them, father and son, that s coming up this hour.
than 50 cars set ablaze since friday. los angeles police announce arrests. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. we re counting down the hours to the first voting of the 2012 presidential campaign. 28 hours to be precise, until iowa republicans gather at more than 1700 locations for their party caucuses and start picking their favorites. candidates have spent millions of dollars, logged many thousands of miles in this long iowa marathon. now it s a sprint. as they dash across the state looking for the last few votes. mitt romney is at the head of the pack trying to hold back ron paul and a hard charging rick santorum. let s go live to cnn joe johns joining us from marion iowa right now with the latest. joe? wolf, mitt romney is pushing across the state traveling hundreds of miles. certainly one of the busiest days of his entire campaign. he is trying to get his supporters to go out and caucus for him. on the final day of campaigning, energy is everything in io